Few economics findings have penetrated the public consciousness in recent years as much as this one: Income inequality has exploded in recent decades, and the top 1 percent in particular have made out like bandits. Economists Emmanuel Saez of UC Berkeley and Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics have been documenting a massive rise […]

During the first year of the Trump administration, the word “unprecedented” has been used so many times it has almost lost its meaning. But there simply is no other word to describe this presidency. First and foremost, there is the unprecedented degree to which the administration has attacked the country’s institutions in ways that threaten […]

President Trump used his State of the Union address to highlight America’s positive economic outlook. He drew particular attention to jobs, claiming to have fulfilled a core campaign promise on employment. And it’s true that the U.S. economy added over 2 million jobs in 2017 — surpassing many economists’ expectations. Indeed, there was widespread concern after the presidential election […]

On January 24, the New York Times published an opinion piece by Angus Deaton, a Nobel Memorial Prize-winning economist, in which he claimed that millions of Americans — specifically, 3.2 million to 5.4 million, depending on the poverty line used — “are as destitute as the world’s poorest people.” This is simply wrong. To the extent […]